Ms. Major is currently Clinical Manager at the Peripheral Vascular Institute at Vascular Access Centers in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to her current position, Ms. Major was the Nurse Manager at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania where she was the manager of 3 departments including Vascular Access, ER and Psychiatric units. She is member of the Association for Vascular Access, American Organization for Nurse Executives. Ms. Major has authored or co-autjored articles for peer-reviewed journals and has presented at several national

nursing meetings.

Sounds of Silence: Reducing Nuisance Alarms in IV Pumps

If you wish to take the post-test for 1.0 free CEU, please go to www.saxetesting.org/p and login. Once you have successfuly completed the test, you may print out your certificate of completion immediately

The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) focuses on managing clinical alarm systems that have the most direct relationship to patient safety. By 2016, hospitals will be required to improve practice standards to reduce false and nuisance alarms to meet the NPSG goal to “improve the safety of clinical alarms.” Infusion pumps accounts for significant number of these false or nuisance alarms. This can be a frustrating disruption to nurses as well as disturbing for their patients. Quite often it is the IV line that is causing these sensitive devices to signal that something is wrong when no intervention is necessary. IV line occlusion and dislodgement are significant contributors to alarm fatigue, interrupted medication delivery, and unnecessary IV line restarts. In this free CE session, we will be discussing how to troubleshoot IV alarms, techniques to prevent false or nuisance alarms, and minimize IV restarts with proper securement of the IV site.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this webinar participants will be able to:

1. Identify 3 different sources of IV pump alarms

2. Describe the risks associated with alarm fatigue

3. Discuss the role of securement of the IV lines in the reducing false alarms and IV restarts

Continuing Education for Nurses

This educational activity is approved for 1 contact hour. Saxe Communications is accredited as a provider for continuing education by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.